Press Pass: Jim Schwartz

He's not here to replace anybody. He's here to add to our group, you know, And and I think that as coaches, our job is to find out what guys do the best and what guys bring to the part. Everybody's got something different they bring to the party, and UM you know we embrace that and try to find a role for all of those guys. But what role he's going to play, UM, you know is is yet to be determined. UM. You know he's he's a very experienced player. He's he's played at a hype, UM, at

a high level of production, plays with a lot of spirit. UM, he's heavy in the run game. He's got natural leverage. That's UM, that's a a kind way of saying he's he's short, but he's he's really powerful. He understands blocking schemes, um, you know, and he has a good understanding pass games. He's got a little bit of experience in the defense. I don't know what that means a whole lot. He's a good player, stands on its own. He's done it

in different schames. What you see in the preseason games, defense was obviously played pretty well the first two games. And do you have you ever been fooled by something you saw preseason when you got through the Riders. Yeah, I don't know that you say fooled by it, but you can get, um, you can get a a skewed version or skewed vision of it. I mean, for a long time I was in Tennessee and our biggest division rival was the Cult. And every year the Colts would

go oh and four in the preseason. And if you if you said, hold, they're going to be down this year, Um, you were on the wrong boat. You know. They were a veteran team. They were getting through. Um. Peyton didn't play a whole lot. Um. Every year they were super Bowl. Every year they were Super Bowl contender UM. And another part of before I got to Detroit UM the year that they won, oh in sixteen, they were four and oh in the preseason. So take it for what it is.

I think that we got parking lot, we we got like traffic jam going on around here. Good gracious UM. So so you can read a little bit. Here's here's what I think. It's it's important to UM see how well we're executing a scheme, to see individual UM. Honestly, effort is an individual production within the scheme. Can you

make the plays that should come to you. One of the things I liked about the game on Thursday is that we played everything that's I don't even know what day it is, but that long drive, that sixteen play drive that's very very difficult for a defense. And they were going, you know, three yards, four yards, five yards, and they kept you know, sort of moving the chains,

and that's a difficult situation. Usually in those sixteen plays, somebody breaks down, somebody misses a tackle, somebody blows an assignment, somebody gets frustrated and tries to make a play they shouldn't make, and then you end up with a touchdown. When I was proud of The defense in that case was they didn't Nobody panicked. They just kept playing. Everybody did their assignment. We ended up with the turnover that came off of it. I think you're looking for those

things in the preseason. I want to ask about what he's shown you, especially in the two games. Yeah, you know, Jalen has a skill set of corner slash safety, played both at Florida, you know, and we've moved him to safety to try to take advantage of that. His challenge had always been tackling and run game. You know. Last year, if you watched a little bit of him, that's that's where he broke down a little bit. And early in

camp this year that's where he broke down. I think he's he's worked very hard and the coaches have worked very hard with him to address that, and you're seeing the results of that. He's playing more aggressively in the run game. And there's times that safeties can play aggressively and there's times where they can. You know, when you're the last line of defense, you got to get that

guy on the ground whoever you can. But there's sometimes where there's leverage and there's hold to fill, you need to be a missile, you need to go fill it. And he's done a good job of that. So I think he's on the right track. We just need to keep seeing improvement from him. He's kind. I'm very proud of him. He's done a really good job. And you know, it's easy to work on your strengths. He's really shown that he's willing to work on his weaknesses and it's

shown on the field. Have you ever rotated it a linebacker? We're having more than three specializing a field. Yeah. Did you feel comfortable with run down? Yeah? I think I go back yet to be seen. Um, but I think that falls into my terrible analogy. If everybody brings something to the party, you know, I mean, you know, if everybody if everybody about the same thing, it would be a crappy party, you know, Or it might be a really good party. Maybe you look at it that maybe

it's a really good one. But um, if everybody brings the same thing, you know, I mean, you got you gotta you gotta accentuate these guys strengths. Um. We talk about that a lot as a defensive line with rolling guys throw. We do it as a secondary there's Nickels, there's dimes, there's things like that. There's no reason that you can't do that as um as linebackers. What do you see from calday because the Steelers, UM see the

same stuff that we saw from him last year. He's a veteran player, he's from before he got hurt last year he was playing. There's there's the there's little defender, motorcycles. UM. Awesome, awesome, UM, Yeah, Nolan Um. Right off the bat, we weren't in we were in a run stop in defense. They were in a run set quarterback check to a pass. No one just went up. I thought that was really the tone setter for the for the day because they tried to take a shot right away. He's in great position, knocks

the ball away. They're not even breaking a sweat that set up his interception later on. Too. Very reliable, he's a pro. Been very pleased with him, and he's done a really good job of managing his body as he's come off of that injury. Marcus Smith and Stephen Means it seemed like they were pretty active obviously in the game against the Steelers. What have you kind of seen from them so far? Same stuff we've seen from those guys in training camp just about every day. I mean,

you guys started. You guys were probably on Stephen Means before anybody else because you saw the same things we saw. And Marcus was doing very well. He just had to set back with the concussion and this time, but he sort of picked up right where he left off. The thing I'm most proud about with Marcus is that he's done a good job in the run game. You know, it's it's not just it's a little bit like you know, talking about Jalen watkins Um. You know, he's a very

skilled athlete and he's fast, he's smooth. I think he was a quarterback when he first went to Louisville. I mean, that's that stuff shows where he was really made good improvement is set in the edge of our defense, attack and tackles. He did that against a physical group from Pittsburgh. That was a great sign. How didn't do the economy

between playing to win right now? As you mentioned, as an Earth based defense versus growing in developing in the talent into the defense of the boar um, you always want to develop. I think that's I think you can do both. I mean, why why does one have to be mutual. Why do they have to be mutually exclusive? Um, you know, there's ways to develop talent and still have an approach that you're going to win. I think we owe it to the locker room, we owe it to defend.

We're gonna try our very best to win every single game. Um. You know, and there's never been a word of any difference in this building. We're gonna try everything weekend to win every game that we play. So, you know, developing players in that I don't I don't know that you can't do both. How often had been Mike Martin miss by being out and is he's still considered one of the top back up at interior lineman. Um, he was doing very well before he missed that time. He fits

the defense. He was making life hard on the offensive lineman, which is what you want from those guys. He did have a sit back as far as miss time. Hopefully we can get him back on the field and like a guy like Marcus or even um, you know Jalen Mills or No One Caroline, those guys that's miss time. He can step right back in and pick up where he left off because he was playing at a high level. Before he missed. The times been very logal and the

challenges generally just a six to five four four receiver. Yeah, I'll just try to stay on the defensive side. You can be asked those questions city offensive guys, you know, I mean those big basketball wide receivers. To do you have a sense of his fitness and for an older guy who hasn't been in a camp, how do you approach him in practice that um I did have a conversation with him and said he had been training twice a day. He knows, he's he's a veteran play he's

been through. I think this is eleven years for him, might be twelve, you know, other than the ACL I don't. I don't think, and maybe since he left, but I know when I was with him in Detroit, we tried to give him a that day off in training camp and told the trainers, hey, you know, Toby will be down today. And he came in my office mad as a hornet, and I was ready to practice, and I'm like, you know, hey, look, you know, let's you know, he's starting to get up a little bit. Let's let's let's

be smart with this. And he's like, you're ruining my streak, like we're talking about her. Coach, I've never missed a practice, never missed a game. But he had never missed a practice. And I think he said going back to high school, going back to NC State high school, eight years at the NFL, he had never missed a practice in the NFL. So guys like that, there's you know, they know how to get themselves ready. He knows he's not coming in here with his eyes shut, not knowing what he's getting.

And I mean he's done it before, he'll be able to he'll be able to do that. I'd be very surprised if it was a different case that day. Oh no, he went out to practice. We cut his reps a little bit, but he still went out. I respect that. I respect guys thatt one. I mean I had the same thing with Calvin Johnson, the same thing with Kyle van deibosch Um. You know those guys that you know we have we have some guys here that that don't like that. You know, they want to be out there

with their teammates. That's even if they're not taking their full regiment of reps. They feel like their presence on the field helps and it does. Um, yeah, we we we cut his reps a little bit. We compromise a little bit. I'm not a big compromiser, but I respect guys that have played a long time. I have tremendous respect for guys to get ten years in the NFL. UM, because you can't make ten years on talent alone. You

can't make ten yards years by being a try hard guy. Um, you got to have a great combination of things and um, you know. And also in ten years, just face it, you're gonna be working with different coaching staffs in ten years. You got to have the ability to work in a lot of different schemes, whether you're an offensive player or

a defensive player. Um, you know. I'll bow down to guys to play ten years in this league because that's tough business, the most important in your mind, in your mind, you put extra stocking it and it's important that you guys go against a lot for an extended pred especially after not facing Ben. We play whoever they put out there, and it doesn't matter if it's a regular season or preseason. We can't control that. So I don't know if I

want to read too much into that. Every game is important there's competition for jobs, there's competition for roster spot. There's some guys that are trying to make a good impression to hopefully make the practice squad. So that's important enough for our guys without putting anything to do with the Colts. Oh, he wants to play the squad. There's something he's discussed. Is that a role you see him

fitting on this deal? Well? He does, he does. Both him and Rodney have to do it in our base defense and having those guys give you the ability to not have to go to nickel personnel when teams run three wide receivers and you know that's the profile safeties has changed over the years. You know that big indo box safety that was an extra linebacker. You know that's that's that's a tough guy to hide because the offense can personnel you and things like that. But it's it's

a security bank. I for the coordinator, for the coach to know that if they do give you a third wide receiver, they give you a set that you know you've got to have a matchup it, blitz whatever it is that you have guys that can do that. I mean, if you're in nickel and you want to run a blitz, one of your safety is going to cover a wide receiver. So he does he does do that in our scheme

and it's very valuable. Um it might be on first and ten, it might be coming it might not be what you think of playing the slot, but it might be coming out of our base package. It doesn't make any less important. He's a very valuable guy. And I'd say Rodney in that same in that same vein. Both of those guys have corner in their back ground and that was part of the profile of us bringing them here. Hey, thanks guys. H